Treachery and tragedy, guilt and guile, ambition and abnegation, murder and madness... No, that wasn't meant to be a summary of James Luceno's Machiavellian masterpiece about the rise and fall of the legendary Sith Lord, Darth Plagueis (nicknamed "The Wise"), though you could be forgiven for thinking so; rather a brief description of the great William Shakespeare's epic tragedy about the about the ambitious nobleman whose overwhelming desire to rule Scotland leads him down a dark path paved with murder, madness, more murder, and finally, his own destruction. I am of course referring to one of The Bard's most beloved works: The Tragedy of Macbeth, adapted countless times (and in countless languages) for stage and screen. Today, I hope to share with you all the many similarities between these two great works, taking a look at the stories themselves, the warnings they give and the concluding fates of their main characters. But be warned: these stories are not for the faint-hearted, boldly confronting the dark side of human nature! Let us begin: "by the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked, this way comes"...
We begin with two Scottish generals, Macbeth and Banquo, returning home after defeating a rebel army in battle. Like all good Shakespeare stories, this scene takes place during a violent storm, giving our brave Scotsman a feeling of unease and foreboding but also of grave insignificance...
The prologue for Darth Plagueis also begins with a storm, but a different kind of storm: a storm in the Force. Having just murdered his elderly Muun master in cold blood, the rising Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious, suddenly experiences a disturbance in the Force: "A tremor took hold of the planet [Coruscant]. Sprang from death, it unleashed itself in a powerful wave... At the quake's epicentre stood Sidious... A welter of voices, near and far, present and from eons past, drowned his thoughts... A tremor of his own making, or one of forewarning". As with the storm harrying Macbeth and Banquo, this tremor is a harbinger for change. It promises many things and leads Sidious into a new chapter in his life, filling him "from the crown to the toe top-full" with both excitement and fear...
As the storm passes, Macbeth and Banquo happen upon a "blasted heath" and encounter three "Weird Sisters". These witches give Macbeth a shadowy prophecy- the first witch calls him by his proper title: "Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!", the second calls him by the title of the rebellious lord he's just dispatched: "Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!", but the third sister calls him by a even grander title: "Hail Macbeth, King that shall't be hereafter!" Already an ambitious man, the witches' words take root in Macbeth's mind...
The "hurly burly" Darth Sidious experiences on Coruscant is another shadowy prophecy of things to come: "Raised in praise, the voices proclaimed his reign and cheered the inauguration of a new order". These "voices" could be telling him any number of things: A message from the fallen Plagueis? News of Darth Maul's untimely demise? Or the Force bouncing back upon Sidious's murderous coronation? One thing's for sure, we are presented with "two truths": life's truth and the dark side of the Force's truth. Which, if either, is to be believed?
But let's leave the book's prologue there, for now at least, jumping forward to the sinister origins of Darth Sidious (Chapter 11: Avatar of Mortality)...
Returning home, Macbeth discovers that part of the witches' prophecy has indeed come true: for his services in battle, Macbeth is proclaimed "Thane of Cawdor" by King Duncan (nicknamed "The Meek") himself. Despite the warnings of worthy Banquo, his mind is suddenly filled with disturbing possibilities: "Two truths are told... This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, why hath it given me earnest of success commencing in truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image... doth make my seated heart knock at my ribs against the use of nature?" Again, we are presented with: two roads, two futures, two truths...
When Darth Plagueis murdered his own master, Darth Tenebrous, the Force called out to him in a similarly uncertain manner: "Your moment has come. Claim your stake to the dark side. Act now and be done with this". However, a few lines later, the author fills us in on just how uncertain these "prophecies" are: "But the Force had only advised; it had neither dictated his actions nor guided his hands. That had been his doing alone"...
In a very short space of time, both Macbeth and Darth Sidious are promoted to positions of extreme wealth and power. After winning the battle, Macbeth becomes an influential lord as well as the King's most trusted advisor. After murdering his father, Cosinga (and his entire family), and pledging himself to the dark side, Sidious becomes: the sole surviving member of House Palpatine, a partner of Damask Holdings (by association) and heir to the legacy of the entire Sith Order. The chancellorship and the downfall of the Jedi await, along with an obsessive quest for immortality. Plagueis suggests that the two of them serve the dark side as equals, working together to accomplish their differing goals. But young Senator Palpatine (like Macbeth) has other plans in mind...
The King comes to stay at Macbeth's castle and the new Thane of Cawdor is racked with uncertainty. He makes the mistake of telling the witches' words to his ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth, who urges him to go through with "the deed" and fulfil the prophecy, promising him everything that the witches only hinted at: wealth, power and an everlasting legacy. In order to succeed in their dastardly plot, she convinces her husband to become the very thing he swore to destroy: "Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't". Finally, he consents to her plan: "False face must hide what the false heart doth know"...
Under cover of night, Macbeth enters the King's bedchamber and carries out the final part of the witches' prophecy, murdering the King in his sleep and (with the help of his wife) blaming it on his sleeping grooms (who he later murders). However, almost as soon as the deed has been carried out, Macbeth is gripped by otherworldly guilt- hideous visions of phantom daggers and ghostly voices crying out: "Sleep no more! Macbeth doth murder sleep. Macbeth shall sleep no more". The die has been cast and the wicked couple must play this game out till its bitter, bloody end...
With the coronation of Queen Amidala, the dethroning of Supreme Chancellor Valorum and the Separatist Crisis taking a turn for the worst, Darth Sidious finally moves to put his own "Grand Plan" into action, luring Plagueis back to his private apartments on Coruscant and plying him with drink before electrocuting the elderly Muun to death with Force lightning. Thus does the now-elderly Palpatine seal his fate as well as the fates of so many others, becoming a new "Sith'ari" to rival Darth Bane... But as with Macbeth and the three witches, the Force has other plans in mind for Sidious...
With the King dead and the two princes, Malcolm and Donalbain, fled (the Shakespearian equivalent of Yoda and Obi-Wan, fleeing Order 66), the way is seemingly clear for Macbeth to take the throne and ensure his legacy. One night's "great business" has given him and his wife their every wish... Or has it?
"Full of scorpions" is the new King's mind, for already dark clouds start to appear on his blood-red horizon: part of the witches' original prophecy involved his loyal brother-at-arms, Banquo, whose young son, Fleance, will allegedly beget a line of kings long after Macbeth has been and gone. Desperate to ensure his rule, Macbeth hires three ruffians to kill Banquo. However, the attempt fails and though Banquo is savagely murdered, his young son escapes, leaving Macbeth with one less friend but an extra portion of blood on his hands...
Now the beloved Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, Darth Sidious is likewise quick to take power and ensure his legacy, spearheading the Republic's entire war effort against the Confederacy of Independent Systems by creating a vast cloned army (with a sinister hidden purpose) and ensnaring a young Anakin Skywalker in a far-reaching web of lies and murder...
However, a lust for power leaves little room for friends.
The Zabrak, Maul, once his prized pupil, becomes (like Banquo) a rival in desperate need of removal. Crushing his growing criminal empire over the course of a few rotations, Sidious sets about putting the last phase of his "Grand Plan" into action: the total destruction of the Jedi Order. However, as Prince Malcolm later observes: "The night is long that never finds the day"...
But "blood will have blood". Plagued by terrible visions of his victims, Macbeth seeks out another audience with the three sisters. He finds them on the same blasted heath, stirring a cauldron of disgusting contents. They give Macbeth three cautionings: beware the Thane of Fife (a fellow warlord, Macduff) but fear no man "of woman born". And lastly: Macbeth's army will not be defeated until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill...
Believing the latter two to be quite impossible, Macbeth sends out his followers to murder both Macduff and his entire family. However, the Thane has already fled the country, though his wife and children are put to the sword (mirroring the carnage of the raid on the Gran Protectorate Embassy or the Siege of the Jedi Temple), installing in Macduff a furious desire for revenge: "(Malcolm) let this be the whetstone of your sword; let grief convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it". Allying himself with Malcolm, Macduff succeeds in rallying a new rebel army supplemented by English troops and marches on Macbeth's castle...
Using the end of the Clone Wars to his advantage, Sidious enacts the last phase of the Grand Plan, toppling both the Galactic Republic and the Separatist Alliance while his clone troopers wipe out all serving Jedi. With Anakin manipulated into serving as an unthinking enforcer, Darth Sidious becomes "Emperor Palpatine", ruling the galaxy with an iron rod and forcing all peaceful worlds to choose between loyalty or destruction. However, like Macbeth, the new Emperor has overlooked something. The Force has played him for a fool. As a rebel alliance forms to question his tyrannical rule, the Emperor faces internal dissent from the most unlikely of sources...
Returning to his castle as Malcolm's army approaches, Macbeth learns of the death of his queen, who, tormented by her guilt, has taken her own life. Alone in the world, but utterly defiant, Macbeth resolves to go out fighting, holding tight to the witches' second prophecy: "At least we'll die with harness on our back... I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked (ironic, considering the fate that befalls Palpatine in TROS)". However, summoned to the battlements, Macbeth learns just how flimsy the witches' promises were, he sees the army of Malcolm, hewing down trees and using them to move forward under concealment. Birnam Wood has indeed come to Dunsinane Hill! But Macbeth fights, hacking down any who opposes him (including valiant Young Siward, who tries and fails to halt Macbeth's reign of terror- the Shakespearean Mace Windu, perhaps?)...
However, all bloodletting comes to a halt when Macbeth comes across the Thane of Fife- a reckoning is long overdue. Arrogant to the last, Macbeth warns Macduff that he bears a "charmèd life which must not yield to one of woman born". And it is now that the final part of the witches' deceptive prophecies comes undone, as Macduff replies: "Despair thy charm, and let the angel whom though still hast served tell thee Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely rippled (meaning, that Macduff is a caesarean)". Realising that he is beaten but determined to die standing up, Macbeth fights on until his head is struck from his shoulders by vengeful Macduff, who delivers it to Malcolm, who is then crowned King of Scotland. So ends the bloody reign of King Macbeth...
Though not integral in the execution of Darth Sidious's downfall, the miraculous parentage of Anakin Skywalker does serve as an interesting link between the two texts. "I bear a charmèd life which must not yield to one of man concieved"- a fitting alteration? Either way, both tyrants are undone by a technicality. Everything they fought so hard for is swept aside in an instant- hated and betrayed, left alone without a friend in the world, their powers swiftly abandoning them as their armies are destroyed and their empires conquered. So ends the wicked reign of Emperor Palpatine, cast into a reactor shaft by the very man who helped him to forge his migty dynasty...
So what can we learn from the tragedy of Macbeth and his Star Wars counterpart? What ultimately undid these wicked men who shed so much innocent blood to accomplish their ambitious goals? In both cases, each man listened to the wrong side of the Force, foolishly believing in "two truths" and prophecies (sometimes only vague hints) which were easily misinterpreted. They both tried to twist destiny to suit their own selfish ends, but in the end, destiny had the last word. Blinded by ambition, warped by bloodlust, deceived by their own malfunctioning moral compasses into thinking that unlimited power is the be-all/end-all, both men were doomed to destruction, incapable of choosing life over death. And the further they waded, the harder it became to turn back. However, the stories themselves (I believe) bear remarkable similarities: sleep-deprived monsters, two-faced traitors and immortal maniacs. Men who, more dead than alive, found themselves locked in an endless struggle to hold onto their power. Irony plays a central part in both their stories: perhaps Sidious's greatest work was the turning of Anakin Skywalker to the dark side, though it was Skywalker who would ultimately destroy him- it was the Thane of Glamis who began by defeating a rebel warlord and seeing his head struck from his shoulders and set atop the battlements of King Duncan's castle, but by the end of the story, it is Macbeth who dies the traitor's death, his head struck from his shoulders and set atop the battlements of King Malcolm's castle. Irony, fate, deceit and ambition go hand-in-hand with these two great tragedies, though they all lead to the same inevitable destination: destruction.
Though not part of my usual series, this post as been a long time coming and I hope you've gotten something constructive out of it, if not a deeper look at one of the most intriguing Star Wars subplots- The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise.
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